Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-18

and fruits were produced. The sea
gave them an unlimited supply of fish
food, and these they caught with hook
and spear, and even landed in seines,
for we are told that the natives had
great sacks made out of grass strings
in which they brought fish to the ves-
sells of the early explorers.
We find no difficulty in giving ere
dence to the conjecture that the Santa
Catalina Islanders of four hundred
years ago enjoyed most enviable po-
sition. They had all the physical nee
essaries and comforts; their wants
were supplied with every luxury and
substantial that the mainland could
produce, and they occupied the proud
eminence of dominating in war and In
peace all their neighboring tribes.
THE ISLAND ONCE A PART OF THE MAIN
The Pineugnas were probably the
remnant of q people who once consti-
tuted a powerful and extensive tribe
covering the entire peninsula which
stretched out from Point Conception
to the Coronadas. Before the great
prehistoric upheaval, which broke Oft
the connection of these islands with
the mainland, the entire channel of
Santa Barbara, from its northwest to
its southernmost extremity, constitut-
ed a beautiful inland sea, overlooked
on one side by the long peninsula now
broken off into islands, and on the
other by the valleys and benches and
mountains of the present mainland.
1t may be asked, what proof we have
that these islands ever consti
tuted an extended arm of the
continent? To this it may be answered
that we have very conclusive proofs.
In the first place the islands are COW
cred with the same fora as the main
land, and then its fauna is identical.
The ground squirrel is ubiquitous and
the cotton-tail rabbit is everywhere on
the island and the silver-tail fox and
the wolf and coyote are also there.
Ground rats and gophers also abound
in the luxuriant valleys. So also we
find the rattlesnake and the pythian
that swallows "small deer" on all OF
the channel islands. These varieties
of animal life could not have reached
there from the mainland, and it is in
credible that they were carried there
in boats or canoes. So they must
have come down in regular succession
from a common ancestry with the same
varieties of the mainland, and that
would force the conclusion that in or
der that they should have thus come
down, the connections of the islands
and the continentsmust have been at
one time continuous.
THE ISLAND GOATS.
The great herds of goats that now
abound on Catalina Island are not in
digenous. The parents of these were
placed there by successive early navi-
gators. Cabrillo may have left pair,
as he had brought a number of them
from the vicinity of Acapulco in his
ships for the purpose of having fresh
milk. But we know that Vancouver
made it a special point to land on all
the islands he visited number of
these prolific animals. Indeed it was
the habit of all the early navigators
to plant domestic animals upon the
islands they discovered. Therefore
the pedigree of the Santa Catalina
goats is very satisfactorily estab-
lished. When the island was first
leased for sheep range-over thirty
years ago-the goats were so numer-
Gus as to render the feed for sheep too
scant to supply the wants of a good
sized flock. Therefore a deadly war
was waged upon the capricorns, and
Notwithstanding they have been regu-
larly hunted for thirty years by men
who made it business to kill them
for their skins. they are yet so numer-
GUS in the high mountains and the
deep chasms as to form quite a draw
back to the profits of wool-growing as
an island industry.
But now that Santa Catalina has
gone into the hands of spectators,
who will devote it henceforth 20 i'm
provement and the pleasures incident
to II modern fashionable watering
place, We may say that the romantic
era of the island has come to an end.
Henceforth it will be no place for
and roughing it. The plain,
careless garb will give way to fashion
able attire, and the joy of appearing
in soiled clothes and battered SOM
brero and lolling or stretching any
where will give way to evening suits,
unimpeachable toilets, and all the
tiresome dressing and etiquette which
constitute the labor and ennui of
first-class watering place. Vale, Santa
Catalina IN puris naturalibus!